As autumn progresses, the UK starling population doubles to 16 million birds. They land en masse and nestle together to keep warm and (so the theory goes) chatter about good feeding grounds.

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Reedbeds and large buildings with ledges are favoured roost sites, but woods and cliffs are used as well. Starlings often switch roost sites, so try to get up-to-date local information before you set off.

Check the forecast, too: the most extrovert displays are in clear, calm, cold conditions. Wrap up warm, arrive an hour before twilight and select your viewpoint carefully: do you prefer the descending sun to illuminate the starlings or provide a crimson backdrop?

West Pier, Brighton & Hove

Understand starling roosts, by Jo Price

Shape-shifting congregations of thousands of starlings at dusk, called murmurations, have an almost volcanic energy.

“Carousels of birds chimed and merged, like iron filings made to bend to a magnet,” writes birder Tim Dee in his book The Running Sky. But explaining how starlings gather in such numbers and mostly avoid midair collisions (fatalities are known in some flocking species) has long provoked much debate.

A multi-disciplinary study, published in 2014 by the University of Warwick, found that flock density is key. “A bird is safer from predation if it joins a big, dense flock,” says researcher Dan Pearce. “So in theory large flocks would eventually be totally opaque. But we discovered that birds select the optimum density so they never quite get that packed. If you look at photos of flocks, there will always be gaps where you can see the sky.

“Each starling constantly monitors the trajectories of about six or seven of its nearest neighbours, while also making adjustments so that it can still see light areas – that is, patches of sky. It must always be able to gather vital information about its surroundings.” Amazingly, this process is entirely instinctive. “The birds do it almost without thinking,” says Dan.